One Man's Legacy
by Spunky0ne
Summary: After the Quincy war, Ichigo and Kisuke find a preservation chamber in the wreckage of Squad 12's headquarters containing an unconscious and pregnant Ichimaru Gin. Ichigo defies the newly elected Central 46, vowing to protect Gin and the baby, no matter that the child's father is the escaped traitor, Aizen Sousuke...mpreg, Ichigo/Gin/Ichigo, Aizen/Gin, Byakuya/Tetsuya, Grim/Renji
1. Chapter 1

**One Man's Legacy**

**By Spunky0ne**

**(I couldn't decide on whether to do another Aizen/Gin or an Ichigo/Gin/Ichigo, so I'm doing both. This one pairs Gin and Ichigo, a new one for me. I hope you all enjoy it! Love you, Spunky)**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**Chapter 1: In the Wreckage**

"Ugh!" Ichigo complained, carefully trying to avoid the odd green slime that covered mot of the debris he was moving, "This is disgusting! Why are we doing this again?"

"Riiiiiight!" Kisuke chuckled, extracting a partially destroyed computer console and gently setting it aside, "You're used to just coming in, busting up the town, saving the day and leaving. You've never had to bother cleaning up after yourself, here, have you?"

"What?" the Shiba heir snapped indignantly, "I wasn't even the one who made this mess!"

"Well, the mechanics of the situation are simple. You and I are a couple of healthy bodies left in a society where most everyone else is pretty trashed. _Someone's_ got to pick up the mess. And besides, picking up the mess in the twelfth division is too dangerous for most regular folks."

"You can say that again," Ichigo sighed, "That big blob that tried to eat me is still giving me the creeps. I hate this place. Now I know why Renji and Rukia'd rather have teeth pulled than to come here."

"Huh, I think they wouldn't complain so much to be out of bed and on their feet again instead of being in bandages and aching all over like they are."

"Has Byakuya come to yet?" the Shiba heir asked, a twinge of worry in his belly as he remembered carrying his unconscious friend back home from the battlefield.

"Not yet, but he will," Kisuke assured him, "He comfortable at home, surrounded by the clan healers and attendants. Orihime's there and Tetsuya hasn't left his side since he was brought back. The healers are watching him because he's so close to giving birth to the Kuchiki heir."

"That's right," Ichigo remembered, smiling, "I just hope that Byakuya's awake by the time the baby comes. No one should miss a moment like that."

"He won't," Kisuke laughed, "No one's more devoted to family than ol' Byakuya. He'll wake up in time."

"Argh! I wish he'd wake up in time to help out with some of this. This is disgusting!"

"Yeah, well, this disgusting mess is full of Kurotsuchi Mayuri's secrets. And with him missing, we aren't going to overlook anything that might give us a clue about that."

"Don't know why anyone even wants to find out where he disappeared to," Ichigo complained, "That guy is worse than some of the enemies we've fought. I don't know why you ever got him out of the Maggot's Nest. He's crazy! The shit he's pulled..."

"Well, he did invent some pretty important things, and we would have lost even more people than we did without some of his crazy remedies."

"Whatever, I still don't like him. I don't trust him."

"Good. Neither do I."

"But you got him released!" Ichigo objected, grimacing as he discovered a still warm chunk of the blob they had destroyed, "You...?"

"Just because I got him released and put him in position to be a taichou doesn't mean I liked the guy," Kisuke explained, "I just figured that a mind like that had potential that I could mine while I was a taichou, myself. I didn't count on losing my job and being banished. I was supposed to be there to keep him under control. But it didn't happen like that. Now that I've come back here, I feel responsible for cleaning up my mess."

"Why am _I_ cleaning up your mess?" the Shiba heir mused dourly, "I think I'd rather be like Byakuya, unconscious and surrounded by people who love him, getting ready to have a baby..."

"You? A baby?" Kisuke laughed, "You're barely out of diapers yourself. You have two kid sisters. Are you that eager?"

"Naw," Ichigo sighed, "I just don't want to have to pick up all of this crap anymore. Can you really blame me?"

"No," Kisuke said, shaking his head and smiling, "And we'll knock off soon. Just help me with this fallen wall over here. I think I sensed a computer still functioning back there. I want to check it out."

"Okay," Ichigo agreed, regaining his smile as the end of their work approached.

The two took up positions on either side of the large piece of broken wall and pulled together fiercely.

"Damn! That is really stuck," Ichigo noted.

"Yeah, see if you can break up some of the edge over there, while I work on this side. If we can't get it this way, we can always break it up more and pull it out. I just don't like taking the chance of destroying anything that might still be working, you know?"

"Yeah, okay."

Each worked quietly at his side of the wall, then the two tried again to lift the section, only to find it still refused to budge.

"All right, I guess we're hacking it up."

"One stupid blast of kido would do it, noooo, he's got to have it in one piece," Ichigo muttered under his breath.

"Fighters," Kisuke chuckled, "They have no appreciation for the finer things. It's all hacking, slashing and bashing, no finesse at all."

"You did a fair amount of busting things up too," Ichigo reminded him.

"Yeah, I did. But I'm not the one griping about cleaning up my mess."

"This isn't MY MESS!" shouted the Shiba heir.

"Just kidding!" Kisuke laughed, "Don't blow a gasket over there."

"I'm not blowing anything," Ichigo grumbled, "There, I broke it over here. We can probably get this piece out now."

The shopkeeper joined his friend and the two pulled at the smaller section of wall, dragging it away and revealing something that made both men stop and stare for a moment.

"Well, I'll be. What was that crazy bastard doing with that?" Kisuke breathed.

"What is it?" Ichigo queried, moving closer to the huge, blue, tube-shaped structure.

"It's what was still working back there behind the wall. It's a preservation unit. I don't know if we want to know what's inside it."

He moved closer and studied the controls on the unit. Ichigo moved along the side of the unit, picking up a fallen file from the debris littered floor. He opened the file and scanned its contents as Kisuke continued to study the preservation unit. A moment later, he stiffened and the file nearly fell from his hand.

"Kisuke!"

Hearing the urgency in his voice, the shopkeeper moved immediately to his friend's side and took the file from his shaking hands. His grey eyes read briefly and his breath caught.

"Mayuri, you son of a bitch!" he gasped softly.

"How the hell could he do that?" Ichigo wondered numbly.

"Not in any way I'd want to know about, and that's saying something. Hey, why don't you go and get Orihime and bring her back here, okay?"

"You're going to...?"

"Not until you get back. I'm going to make sure that everything's stable."

"Okay."

"And Ichigo, don't talk to anyone about this. We don't know what we have here yet, and we don't want anyone else getting involved until we do."

"Gotcha!" the Shiba heir agreed, flash stepping away.

Kisuke returned to the unit's control panel, where he spent the next half hour studying each of the many buttons. He found a small panel, which, when pulled away, revealed a schematic of the unit with precise instructions for it's use. After studying the schematic, Kisuke moved back to the main controls, eyeing them carefully, then sighing softly at his findings.

"You are one messed up, freaky bastard," he mused, "I hope if they ever do find you, they build a hole deeper than Muken to put you in!"

"Urahara taichou?"

Kisuke blinked in surprise, still not used to hearing his restored title. He turned to observe the young officer standing amidst the debris a short distance away.

"Yeah, Rikichi, what's up?"

"It's the newly elected Central 46, sir!" Rikichi exclaimed, "They've just left the sixth division and are coming here to survey the recovery and restoration efforts."

"Just what I don't need," Kisuke mumbled, "Hey, uh, you need to go out there and keep them from coming in. You shouldn't be here, yourself. There's...ah...some dangerous gasses and malevolent reiatsu I'm cleaning up here. Tell'em I'll have to walk them through tomorrow, okay? It's just too dangerous right now, and hey, we just elected all of them. Wouldn't have to replace any so soon, ne?"

"R-right, sir!" Rikichi said, straightening, "I'll stop them from coming in. But will you be all right, sir?"

"I'm fine. I'm using protective kido. Go on, now, okay?"

"Yes, sir!"

Kisuke watched the youth disappear into the distance, then turned back to the preservation unit.

"It's good that some of the young, kinda innocent ones are still with us," he sighed, placing his attention back on his work, "We lost a lot of that in the war."

He continued his exploration for a time, pausing when he heard approaching footsteps, then breathing a sigh of relief as Ichigo and Orihime appeared.

"You found her. Thank goodness," the shopkeeper said, sounding relieved, "And you didn't tell anyone?"

"Not a soul," Orihime promised.

"How's Kuchiki taichou?" Kisuke asked kindly, "And Tetsuya?"

"Kuchiki taichou is awake, and just in time!" Orihime said excitedly, "Tetsuya-san is in labor and expected to have their baby tonight."

"Good...good news," Kisuke said, smiling, "I'm sorry to have to pull you away from that..."

"Oh, it's okay," the young woman assured him, "The clan healers have Kuchiki taichou's care under control, and they understand Tetsuya-san's breeder ability better than I do."

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Kisuke agreed, "And I could really use your help here. Ichigo and I had a look through the file on what's in this preservation unit, and to make sure that the one in here survives, once we open it, we're going to need to use your healing abilities."

"Okay, I'm ready," Orihime affirmed, "But, what's in there?"

"Come on over. Just, stand back a little. If our buddy, Mayuri, left any kind of traps or such on this thing, I want to be the one to deal with it. Stay right there until I tell you."

"You've got it," Ichigo said, frowning and nudging Orihime back a step behind him.

The two watched as Kisuke took a steadying breath and then touched several of the buttons. They held their breath for a moment at the sound of a loud hissing, then relaxed slightly, watching as the unit's lid rose. Kisuke waited until it was fully opened, then moved forward and leaned over the unit, studying the contents carefully. He examined the naked body of the silver-haired man within, briefly, then drew up the sheet to cover him from the waist down, before calling the other two rescuers over.

"It's okay, no traps," the shopkeeper informed them, "And he's alive and perfectly preserved."

"He?" queried Orihime, following Ichigo to where Kisuke stood, then gasping as she recognized the person in the unit.

"Ichimaru Gin," Ichigo said softly, looking down at the unconscious former shinigami taichou.

"Wh-why is his stomach like that?" Orihime asked in a trembling voice, "Is he like Kuchiki Tetsuya? Is he a breeder male too?"

"I don't think he _was _a breeder male before, but he was transformed somehow into one," Kisuke surmised.

"You think that creepy bastard, Mayuri, did it?" Ichigo asked.

"No, he didn't," Kisuke said with certainty, "You guys remember during the Hueco Mundo invasion that Kuchiki Tetsuya disappeared for a few days, then reappeared?"

"Yeah, and he didn't remember a thing about what happened or where he was," Ichigo recalled aloud, "They checked him out and he hadn't been harmed at all. But he never did remember anything from the time he was gone."

"That's right. It was erased from his mind, by the person who did this to Gin."

"Do you think he knew about this when...?"

"Shh!" Kisuke hissed suddenly, "Someone's coming this way. We can't let them see this guy. Gin's conviction for treason and death sentence were never revoked. If word of this gets to the powers that be in the wrong way, he's not going to live to have that baby! Quick, you two stabilize him and get him to my cottage near Kuchiki Manor. I'll talk to these guys and make sure they don't see you. Orihime, handle this carefully, okay? He's in a pretty fragile state right now. Mayuri didn't go easy on him."

"Okay!"

Orihime leaned over the preservation unit and invoked her power, swiftly providing relief to the unconscious shinigami and stabilizing his body, then she turned and gave Ichigo a nod of approval.

"You can move him now."

Ichigo nodded back and moved forward, then slid his hands under Gin's slender body and lifted it cautiously out of the containment unit.

"I know he broke the laws of Soul Society and he wasn't exactly innocent," Ichigo commented as they worked their way out of the debris that had been the twelfth division, "But he was really trying to stop Aizen."

"I know," Orihime agreed, "It's just sad that Rangiku-san could never get Central 46 to listen to her so that they would pardon him."

"I don't know if they would have, even if they had listened," Ichigo sighed, "As much as Soul Society has changed for the better, some things haven't changed much at all. Gin would have stood a better chance of someone listening if old man Gramps was still alive. I think Kisuke's right that we have to keep this a secret."

"But won't the truth come out eventually? I mean, he can't hide forever, right?"

"One problem at a time," Ichigo chuckled, "Right now, we have to stay focused on keeping Gin and his baby alive. We can worry about clearing his name later."

"You mean, you want to help him?" Orihime asked, smiling up at the Shiba heir, "That's good, because I do too! I know he did some things wrong, but he was a good friend to Rangiku-san. I know we can't tell her about it now, especially with her still being treated in the fourth division, but I know she will be really happy when we can tell her he's alive."

"Yeah, she was really broken up when she thought he died. It's strange, though. She said she buried Gin, herself, in the Rukongai. If Gin's here, I wonder how Mayuri tricked her...or if it even was Mayuri who tricked her. We don't know a thing about how he disappeared from Karakura Town and ended up in Kurotsuchi's hands. I wonder if Gin knows what happened."

The two stopped talking as they reached the small cottage, concealed within a misted section of forest, alongside a large, moonlit lake. They carried Gin inside and laid him in a comfortable bed in one of the rooms. Orihime remained at the unconscious shinigami's side, keeping his body stabilized as Ichigo left for a short time, returning later with food for the two to eat as they waited for the shopkeeper to arrive. They breathed a sigh of relief as Kisuke's flash step finally sounded outside, then the shopkeeper joined them in the bedroom. He looked Gin over again, nodding approvingly, then drew curious frowns from the others as he placed kido bindings on the silver-haired man's slim wrists.

"Do you really need to do that?" Ichigo asked, lowering his eyes, "I mean, we know he wasn't really with Aizen..."

"And we don't want him getting stupid and leaving here before we get his side of what happened," Kisuke warned them.

"Like who took him and made Rangiku-san believe she buried him," Orihime posited.

"Or who the father of his kid is," Ichigo added.

"I don't know who took him," Kisuke said, "whether it was Mayuri or someone who gave him to Mayuri, but the name of the father was in the file on the second page. The father of his baby is...Aizen Sousuke."


	2. Snake Can't Slither

**Chapter 2: Snake Can't Slither**

**(Thanks so much for all of the wonderful support on this story! My gratitude to Bijective and Invertible (Ah, things are about to get veeeeery interesting!), sakurayuri89 (Thanks so much! I will keep them rolling!), Eva Galana (Yes, I love that Gin wasn't all bad. He does have a side no one sees, but Ichigo will get an eyeful. Gin is still a snake, but he does have a heart in there. Ah yes, and Renji will be fun to write with Grimmjow!), Anelir-sensei (Glad you are enjoying the pairing. I love trying new ones!), lokivsanubis (Oh, that baby is going to cause so much trouble!), MissLittleNeko (You've got it! More is coming along!), irritatedbookworm (You have such wonderful ideas! Wait till you see what I've done with this latest!), and IloveGiroro (Here you go!) Love you all! Spunky) **

"You want to knock off for a while?" Ichigo asked, "Dinner's ready."

"Don't tell me you let Orihime cook for us," Kisuke chuckled, lifting Gin's limp arm and checking the IV, then studying the monitor next to the bed.

"No way!" Ichigo laughed, "I value my life. I cooked everything myself."

"Well," the twelfth division taichou said, taking on a more serious expression, "You may value your life, but it seems that bastard, Kurotsuchi didn't value Gin's very much at all."

"Really?" Ichigo mused, frowning down at the uncoscious shinigami, "What do you mean? What did he do to him?"

"It's more like what did he _not_ do to the guy."

"Whoa, even though he knew Gin was pregnant, he...?"

"He appears to have kept him unconscious and on very basic life support well beyond what any reputable scientist would deem safe. I'll be honest with you. Although the guy's body has been preserved, his mental and cognitive faculties may be gone."

"What?" the Shiba heir gasped, looking stunned, "You mean his mind...?"

"Could still be functional, but is more likely to be damaged, maybe devastatingly so. I don't even know if I dare to wake him."

"Damn," Ichigo breathed, shaking his head, "Isn't there any way to help him?"

"I don't know how much help he needs or if I can help him until I attempt waking him, and I don't know if I should attempt waking him while he's still carrying the baby. A sudden change in his state of consciousness or awareness could cause bad things to happen. It could go really wrong, really fast."

"So, what are you going to do, just keep him under like that until the baby comes?"

"I don't know," Kisuke confessed, "Just one of many frustrating questions I have to think about. But, I do think taking a break and having a bite to eat would be good. You mind doing me a favor while I go do that?"

"Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"Sit down by him, okay?"

Ichigo sat down at Gin's bedside and looked up at Kisuke questioningly while the twelfth division taichou lowered the sheet and exposed the pregnant shinigami's rounded belly.

"What's that about?" the Shiba heir queried, frowning, "You want me to give the guy a belly rub or something? You're not going weird on me, are you? Playing jokes? Cause if you are messing with me..."

"I'm not messing with you," Kisuke chuckled, "Although a belly rub isn't far from the mark."

"Kisuke!" Ichigo objected, blushing.

"Just teasing. Look, place your hands over the rounded section and just relax and let your reiatsu billow around you."

"You don't want me to aim it into his body or something?"

"Heh, if _you_ try to aim your reiatsu into him, all you're gonna do is fry the poor bastard, and we don't want that, do we?"

"Jerk..." Ichigo muttered dryly, letting Kisuke position his hands, then offering the requested flow of energy, "Hey, what is this doing, anyway?"

"Gin's body's kind of a mess right now, so he's not circulating his own reiatsu properly. Having yours flow around his body will add to his reiatsu and help to direct the flow more effectively."

"That doesn't sound too dangerous."

"Well, it's not without side effects, but I think if we don't do it, then all we'll have is a dead shinigami, a dead baby shinigami and no answers of any kind."

"So, this is definitely better, but what side effects are you talking about? We're not going to grow any unnatural parts or get sick or..."

"No, no, nothing like that," Kisuke promised, "It's just that, what I'm having you do is actually also related to something the breeders would do. The father of the child would do something similar to this when with his pregnant spouse. It helped to keep the bearer's body in balance and it also bonded the two more firmly by mingling their reiatsu in the child."

"Wait, what?" Ichigo mused, blinking, "I'm not the kid's father! That's Aizen!"

"Well, he's not exactly available to help us out here. And even if he was, I don't think after what he already did to Gin that the guy would welcome him back with open arms. He's likely to lose both of them _and _his head this time."

"But if I do this, you mean...?"

"Your reiatsu would mingle with Gin's and the baby's...well, and the father's, of course."

"Kisuke, something doesn't make sense to me. If Aizen fathered the baby, then why did he try to kill Gin? And why didn't Gin already have the baby, since he survived? And if Aizen didn't father the baby before, does that mean that Kurotsuchi Mayuri did this to Gin using Aizen?"

"You are just full of questions, aren't you?" Kisuke laughed, "But you're in luck. I do have some answers, though only a few. And I have more questions."

He looked down at Gin's sleeping face, watching the muscles relax slightly as Ichigo began the reiatsu infusion.

"First of all, I know for a fact that Gin was already pregnant when he went to Karakura Town with Aizen. I don't know if he realized it, or if Aizen might have hidden the knowledge from him."

"But why would Aizen impregnate the guy if he was just going to kill him...and before the baby was born?"

"I'm not sure. That's one of my questions. But I do know that Gin was impregnated and that Aizen is a father."

"Whoa..._a_ father?" Ichigo repeated, almost forgetting about the infusion, then catching himself and redirecting his reiatsu slightly, "You mean..."

"Let me tell you a little something about the breeders," Kisuke offered softly, "And this goes back to Tetsuya-san. I don't think you know. It's not ever spoken of, but Tetsuya was pregnant when he was rescued from the prison."

"What?"

"Tetsuya-san told Byakuya that the baby was fathered by Naoki, a boy that he shared a cell with in the prison."

"Are you saying that's not true?" Ichigo asked curiously, "And why would Tetsuya lie about that to Byakuya, who just rescued him?"

"I don't think it was really a lie. The boy was one of the fathers, but someone else originally got Tetsuya-san pregnant."

"And how do you know that?"

"Tetsuya-san was badly injured in the rescue attempt and Naoki was killed. Byakuya turned to me to try to save his cousin and the baby."

"But I've never heard of Tetsuya having a baby, so..."

"During surgery, Tetsuya-san's body went into shock. He had taken too much damage and could not manage the pregnancy and still manage his own functions. I tried everything I could think of...every damned thing in the book, but in the end, Byakuya was forced to choose. I could let things take their course and although the baby would be born, Tetsuya-san would definitely have died...or I could end the pregnancy and save Tetsuya-san."

"Damn...," Ichigo breathed, shaking his head, "That's a hell of a choice."

"Tetsuya-san was comatose, but Byakuya knew how he would choose. Even so, he couldn't do it. He couldn't let his cousin die, not after all he had done to bring Tetsuya-san out of that place."

"That's got to have been really hard on them."

"Yeah. Tetsuya-san took the news quietly while Byakuya was there, but collapsed and completely lost it after he left. He didn't hold it against Byakuya, but it broke something in him. He was a mess for a long time, but after Hisana-san's death when he and Byakuya became lovers, Byakuya promised him that they would someday have children of their own. They had to wait a while to make sure that Tetsuya-san's body could tolerate the procedure to repair the damage from before, but things went well and they were able to conceive the Kuchiki heir."

"I'm glad. They deserve to be happy," Ichigo said approvingly, "But, tell me something. You said that Naoki wasn't the only father. If he wasn't, then who else was?"

Kisuke's eyes narrowed.

"You have to promise me that you will never repeat this to another soul without my permission. Tetsuya-san doesn't want Byakuya to know, because he wants to let bygones be bygones and move on. To him, it's just Naoki's child and his, because it was Naoki who cared for Tetsuya and gave him the infusions."

"But someone else fathered the child?"

"Yeah, you know that obnoxious cousin that's always annoying Tetsuya-san?"

"Orochi?"

"Yeah. He was sent by Byakuya to spy within the prison and to protect Tetsuya-san until he could be rescued. Tetsuya-san's father was Kuchiki Soujun's first cousin and closest friend. Takao was his name. He was executed back when marrying a commoner was still strictly punished. Tetsuya-san's mom died in the prison when he was a child. Anyway, Byakuya found out he was there and sent Orochi because the guy was the only one who could masquerade well as one of the mixed-blood haters that ran the place. But it seems that protecting wasn't really what he was doing. According to Tetsuya-san, Orochi sexually assaulted Naoki and him numerous times, and when he found out that Tetsuya-san was pregnant, he had Naoki give him the infusions so that the signs of paternity would be confused. Tetsuya-san begged me to destroy them and to tell Byakuya that Naoki was the only father. He didn't want Byakuya to dishonor himself by killing Orochi in cold blood."

"Why not? The asshole deserved it!" Ichigo insisted, "But I guess I get it."

"Tetsuya-san wanted to calm things between the factions in the clan that favored the traditional ways and the ones who were a little more accepting. Killing Orochi would only have made things more volatile. Even as destroyed as he was by what had happened, Tetsuya-san did what he felt was best for everyone. But, getting back to Gin, although Aizen did contribute the original genetic material, there are others who either took him sexually or contributed reiatsu in the kind of exchange you are using."

"S-so, by...holy hell, Kisuke!" Ichigo snapped, withdrawing his hands only to have them captured and set back in place by the elder shinigami, "Fucking hell, you could have at least warned me!"

"And you would have refused? Is that what you're telling me?"

"You could've done this yourself. Why involve me?" Ichigo demanded, "You know, I thought that crap you pulled on Orihime with the revealing dress was bad, but this is...this is _criminal_!"

"I couldn't infuse him. My reiatsu didn't resonate well with his. And Orihime's a full human, no part shinigami, so she's not compatible. You're at least part shinigami and your reiatsu resonates well with his. And since we can't exactly organize a donor drive while he's still considered guilty of treason..."

"I guess I see your point, but next time at least _say _something before having me do something like that."

"I will, but Ichigo, you need to understand, you being added to the list of fathers is not the biggest problem we have right now."

"Oh? You mean, the bigger problem is keeping Gin from being found. Well, we'll protect him while we figure things out. That's a given."

"I don't just mean that."

"Then, what do you mean?"

"I mean I've been checking out some of the blended reiatsu in this kid and I have to say, I'm more than a little freaked out."

"What? Who are the other fathers? Not Ywach, right?"

"No, luckily not him or we'd pretty much be screwed right here. But all of the others are very powerful shinigamis or hollows."

"So, what you're saying is that Aizen had him then handed him over to..."

"To Tousen and _all_ of the high level Espadas. But that isn't the end of it. He also affected Gin's own reiatsu with the hougyoku, and part of the reason he's such a mess is because it is causing his body to slowly transform."

"Transform? Into what? A hollow?"

"No, not a hollow. A transcendent."

"A transcendent? You mean, like Aizen?" Ichigo asked, paling at the thought, "He wants to have a transcendent baby? Why? Because he could...control the kid and make the hougyoku accept him or her instead of himself?"

"I don't think so," Kisuke answered darkly, "Ichigo, I think that Aizen didn't give a damn about the baby, itself, only the transcendent body that he meant to make more powerful than his own, through infusions by Tousen and all of the ranking Espadas."

"That is _really _screwed up, if that's what he was trying to do. Are you saying he was just making this kid to be a new body for himself? What about the kid's soul?"

"He would have devoured it."

"His own kid?" Ichigo shouted, "Who would do that to his own kid! That's monstrous!"

"Yeah."

Ichigo went silent, gazing down at Gin and blinking in shock at the horror of what Aizen had done to him.

"So, wait, how is it that the kid hasn't been born yet? Hasn't it been too long?"

"It would be except that it seems Gin was held in suspended animation for a while so that Kurotsuchi could fix him up. He was brought out of it occasionally for tests, but then suspended again. It's a sure way of killing most people. Gin's lucky he's still here at all."

"But you don't even know if you can revive him."

"I don't know if I dare revive him and have him wake up to this. If Aizen was keeping him in the dark, which he probably was, because he's Aizen, Gin could lose it and make things even worse for himself and this kid."

Ichigo bit his lip gently, studying Kisuke's expression.

"Is that really the truth or did you keep him under while you tried to make up your mind about whether or not to let the kid be born."

Kisuke flinched and his lips stiffened.

"It's not the kid's fault, right? But you know that the tyke's going to be targeted by everyone, good and bad, looking to use him for something...to make a more powerful body, as a hostage, a bargaining chip or even to hold up as a god. The kid will be more powerful than Aizen and have a ton of shit to deal with. He or she is going to need someone in their corner...someone who will think only of what's best for the kid."

"That's why you chose me, isn't it?"

Kisuke lowered his eyes for a moment, then raised them again to meet Ichigo's.

"I took Tetsuya-san's baby and couldn't save him," he confessed softly, "And I really don't want to take the life of another kid. Even though it was to save Tetsuya-san's life...it...does things to a guy, you know?"

"I get it," Ichigo sighed, "Okay, I'll help him. Just, next time give me a little warning, okay?"

"You've got it."

"Go and eat now," Ichigo said, "I've got this."

"Did you eat?"

"Yeah. Go on. I won't let anything happen to them."

"Thanks, Ichigo," Kisuke said gratefully, turning away and exiting the room.

Ichigo went silent, letting his hands caress the bump on Gin's naked belly and frowning as he mulled over the disturbing details.

"That guy was as twisted as twisted gets," he mused, "and he's out there somewhere. I have to hope he doesn't know you're alive. If he does..."

A bolt of shock went through him as Gin's reiatsu throbbed for a moment, then the restrained shinigami moved fitfully on the bed and his eyelids fluttered and opened. He struggled to focus for a moment as Ichigo prepared to call out.

"Y-you!" Gin gasped, his hand wrapping around Ichigo's wrist, "T-tell me! Did...did you do it, Kurosaki Ichigo? Did you kill Aizen Sousuke?"


End file.
